Thoughts on the book “The Art of Changing the Brain”

Book cover

As Educators, Can We Change the Brain?

I have been taking a wonderful neuropsychology course this semester.  I have long thought that knowledge of neuropsychology was important when planning and delivering instruction.  Based on what I am learning this semester, my suspicions have been confirmed.

I recently read a book titled “The Art of Changing the Brain” by James E. Zull.  This book teaches you about how the brain uses physical paths and physical areas to learn, and we need to understand how these paths and areas work so we can effectively teach our students to LEARN.

Zull (2002) posits that we must know how to leverage the biological brain so we can “transform” our teaching and students’ learning by utilizing our students’ senses and the physical world when we teach. He states that by teaching for all the brain’s functions (thought, emotions, senses, actions, and artistic creation) we can effectively teach our students so they will learn and remember.  It is the use of all these brain activities in our teaching that comprises the “art” of changing the brain. The very act of learning changes the brain.  Very cool…

This book debunks the myth that the brain cannot change or grow.  In fact, our olfactory bulbs and our hippocampus are capable of neuron generation throughout our lives (Kolb & Whishaw, 2008).  The hippocampus is a part of the forebrain, located in the medial temporal lobe. It belongs to the limbic system and plays major roles in short term memory and spatial navigation. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in each side of the brain.

Hippocampus Location as seen on an MRI scan

The hippocampus plays a major role in learning, and neurons increase in the hippocampus as we learn.

Zull’s idea is for us to change our students’ brains by teaching them so they learn effectively.  By learning, their brains will automatically grow and change.

Knowing Brain Biology and Leveraging that Information when we Teach

While stating that brain biology is important to understand when teaching, he teaches us the areas of brain activity as related to learning activities.  He gives us a simplified learning and information input model of the brain.  Information first comes in through the senses, then it flows into the temporal integrative area, then to the frontal integrative area, then to the motor area where action is initiated.

He then gives us the learning cycle of Concrete experience (experiential learning) -> Reflective observation -> Abstract hypothesis -> Active testing.  Based upon Zull’s learning cycle, he then maps cycle elements onto brain areas.

Based on the above diagram, you can see that learning involves the whole brain and we must encourage our students to use all of their brain while learning.  This means that we must create learning experiences rather than teaching experiences.  If we do not create learning experiences, our students will only generate concrete experiences and not continue to reflective observation, then abstract hypotheses, and finally testing.

This implies that we must create learning experiences that entail reflection, hypothesis formation, and personal testing of one’s learning.  This also means that you need to get your students involved in the learning process.  What does that mean exactly?  I now believe that you need to not only get your students’ attention, but you must motivate your students to care about the subject.  You must help your students envision why your learning concepts are important to THEM; it is only by giving meaning to your topics that your students will even care to reflect let alone hypothesize and test.

Now Back to the Growing, Important Limbic System

In fact, caring is a big part of the learning process because without it, the process of working memory, hypothesis formation, and testing would not be possible: the structures that give meaning and attention to those thinking processes would stop activations from going any further if those areas won’t activate due to lack of interest or attention.

The emotional, caring, attentional brain areas are in the hippocampus, inferior frontal cortex, amygdala and associated paralimbic cortex, and the hypothalamus (Kolb & Whishaw, 2008).  Working memory and the physical path of the learning cycle go through the limbic and surrounding areas.

Emotion, Motivation, & Attention are found in the Midbrain/Limbic system

If those areas stop the learning process by not being activated through meaning and caring, then the learning cycle will stop. Zull’s learning cycles mapped onto my depiction of Baddeley’s Working Memory model based on fMRI studies. The big red “X” indicates the road block that can appear when a learner does not care, had no attention, and or has no meaning for the learning concepts.

Implications

This book has been an a-ha moment for me.  I now look at the Baddeley Working Memory model as something that only deals with the business of our working memory and learning.  Where is the humanity?

As we teach, we need to tolerate and even encourage emotion from our students.  I know, I know… this could be a strain on our very mental health, but we teach because we care.  The key is to turn your students’ passion for good grades into a passion for learning and a passion for the subject.

Because our brains are hard-wired to use the emotion areas in our brain so that we can process and store information, we must be very careful to create student-centered instruction, not teacher-centered instruction.  Often, our teaching jobs depend on the success and happiness of our students; the way to student learning and being happy with your instruction is to create the student-centered instruction.  Remember, it is not about you.  It is about them.

Based on this information, we should keep a few important things in mind when creating and delivering instruction:

1. Get to know your students’ demographics, needs, and reasons why they are in your class.
2. Create instructional goals that meet the needs of your students, not only the concepts you are currently working on.
3. Teach your students your learning goals and why you are teaching certain concepts.  Let them know how your instruction will benefit them and help them with their own goals.  This is how you get your students to “buy in” to their learning.  In turn, this creates motivation and meaning.
4. Relate what they are learning to something they already know.  This strategy will also bring meaning to your instruction.
5. Let your students expand on what you are teaching.  Allow group work and allow opinions and insights to be spoken.
6. Allow your students time to reflect, hypothesize, and test what they are learning.  This means that you not only spend time teaching, but you also create reflection/discussion time and “testing” time for their hypothesis.
7. Always assess your students’ knowledge transformation (they call this formative assessment for a reason).  If your students are not learning, then evaluate your goals and strategies..make it a learning experience not just a teaching experience.

References

Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. Q. (2008). Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology (Vol. 6). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Zull, J. E. (2002). The art of changing the brain. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.